Admiralty Bay Memorial Service
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Ken Gibson reports that it is possible that the Brazilian Base, Comandante Ferraz, will be requested through the Brazilian Naval Attache in London to take an interest in the graves and cairns at Admiralty Bay. He has been concerned for some time about their condition and has set out to have them visited and if possible maintained.
Ken contacted a number of cruise companies hoping that they would be willing to assist but they showed little interest in the task. He heard from one of the cruise guides, Bob Burton, who spent a number of winters in the Antarctic, that there is a Brazilian Base at Admiralty Bay and after contacting the Naval Attache at the Brazilian Embassy in London has heard that "he is pretty sure that the base will be happy to arrange some kind of memorial service". There is evidently also a Brazilian grave there too.
Two of Ken's colleagues, Alan Sharman and {cms_selflink page='66' text='Dennis Bell'} were lost in 1959. There is a cairn to Dennis who was killed in a crevasse accident and whose body was not recovered. {cms_selflink page='59' text='Alan Sharman'} is buried close to the base. There is a cairn to {cms_selflink page='59' text='Ronald G Napier'}, who was lost in 1956 in a dinghy accident. {cms_selflink page='59' text='Eric Platt'} who suffered a heart attack in 1948 is also buried close by.
Ken has been contacted recently by some of Dennis Bell's relatives who found out about the Trust's activities on the internet. He says they are "delighted that someone was interested." The Bell family, his brother David in Australia and his sister in the UK, expressed disappointment that they had been told little about the incident at the time and feel that it is timely that efforts are made to remember them.
Ken Gibson received the pictures below of the Mass held by the Brazilian Navy during March 2009 for the souls of those who had been killed at Admiralty Bay.
